Corporate social responsibility gets the royal treatment

By Kamil Tchorek

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Britain's special representative for international trade and investment, was in Poland last week as the official guest of Deputy Prime Minister Jerzy Hausner. His visit included trade discussions with President Kwaśniewski and Leszek Miller, and the presentation of awards to major investors at the International Business Leaders' Forum (IBLF).

The Duke of York, second son of Queen Elizabeth II, was representing his older brother, the Prince of Wales, in his campaign to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) through the work of the IBLF, for which he acts as figurehead.

In Poland, where enthusiasts of CSR complain that it is too often regarded as a company cost rather than an investment, the forum has the practical support of major investors such as BP Polska, Tesco Polska, Procter & Gamble, PricewaterhouseCoopers, ABB and Commercial Union.

The IBLF's Corporate Action Program in Poland is directed towards fighting bribery and corruption. The program advises firms about how to establish an effective whistle-blowing policy and a mechanism for disclosing government payments. As the IBLF asserts, both need to be instilled at a practical level rather than in the boardroom.

"The real problem of corruption is among low-level management," said Adrian Hodges, Managing Director of the IBLF, at the awards ceremony in Warsaw: "the people who have to deal with the nuts and bolts of a company, rather than the people who come up with the ideas and have the international contacts. There must be a mechanism in place where it is possible to speak up."

The anti-corruption drive has included the promotion of investigative journalism at Polish universities, where well-known journalists from national dailies, under the auspices of the IBLF, teach trainee journalists about the measures that should be taken when writing about corporate, governmental and organized crime.

Aside from the shady subject of corruption, the IBLF tries to offer a bright future to unemployed people lucky enough to get involved in one of their business opportunity programs. Autokreacja, which mirrors the "Restart" initiative in Scotland, targets the areas of highest unemployment in Poland, and manages to find employment, often after a period of manager-shadowing, for over 60 percent of attendees.

The companies involved are pleased with their association with the program. "There is material value in our reputation for social responsibility," said Marta Lander, a Property PR Executive of Tesco Polska, at the IBLF awards ceremony. "When we apply for planning permission for a new development, local governments are more keen to cooperate with us now that they know we will offer real benefits to the local community, which in Tesco's case means support for schools."

To spite the skeptics, the Duke of York said in his speech at the IBLF, "Hard-headed businessmen know that the best productivity is ensured by a great relationship with their employees and the local community." On the official visit, Prince Andrew also visited the Cadbury-Wedel factory in Wrocław and opened a new British school in Warsaw.

The IBLF has seen renewed interest and support since the Enron and WorldCom scandals. At the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in New York last year, in a joint statement with the IBLF, 36 CEOs of major companies from 15 countries demanded that CSR should be at the center of business strategy. The statement asserts that, "a responsible business must ... move beyond philanthropy, and CSR must be integrated into core business strategy and practice."